


death will know your name

by nightofdean



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Immortal Bruce Banner, Multi POV, One Shot, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 15:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightofdean/pseuds/nightofdean
Summary: Bruce Banner is a result.





	death will know your name

Everything is slightly muffled, sight, smell, and touch. Fingers caress something scratchy, yet soft, finding dirt beneath. He doesn't investigate further. His whole body is sensitive, too sensitive to make sense of everything he is feeling. Turning his head slowly, he sees the canopy, verdant green sky - no, leaves - he's in a forest this time. Eyes blink slowly, trying to remember, nothing comes. He's not surprised, it always takes awhile.

Aching, muscle and bone hurting, he pushes himself up, sitting. Fingers digging into soft green moss, he wipes his hand on his bare leg. His bare body laid out in the forest. Nudity was never what made him feel embarrassed or vulnerable. Collects his emotions, fear, pain...loneliness.

___________

He wakes in confusion, moss green hands digging in dirt and sand. He howls in pain, hot pain in his stomach. His head sweeps inhumanly fast unused to his new bulk.

No, no, he can't be.

____________

Closed off to himself, he feels a soft hand caress his cheek. The warmth of the gesture, that simple touch floors him and he leans. Eyes look up and see a somber brown face, dappled light touching their skin. A halo of curly hair surrounding their head.

"Bruce Banner, don't hide away from me." They say in a smooth tone, not demanding or begging. Just a gentle suggestion. Their eyes deep, dark, and endless stare into him. Gently, sincerely ....asking.

______________

He hides in the green green green forest. The first thing he realizes with deep dark dread is that no one can ever know, not even himself. He buries the truth inside.

______________

Bruce blinked at them, slowly memory returning, flashes of light and dark. The Hulk saving him from death, sometimes at his own hands, sometimes at enemies. Sometimes he actually died, and then the dark was light again. Bruce lips thinned, the memory always came back, the knowledge.

"Oh," a moment, a beat of silence, "oh." A shaking breath escapes his throat, it's been years but the path never gets easier.

_______________

It takes him a few months trapped inside Banner's head to start hating Banner. To really realize how completely ignorant he was, to what the Hulk was. The gamma bomb was so much more than he ever thought.

He almost gets excited by the possibilities and nearly starts calculations before he feels a rush then a flip sensation and he's being pushed into the world again. He roars in frustration forgetting his internal excitement and destroys Abomination for puny Banner.

After that Banner pushes him down so far he nearly forgets who he is.  
_______________

"Bruce you have to let me in." He feels their arms embrace him, dry sobs rack his body. Bruce's whole body is tight and stiff, held away from the embrace, not accepting them. Hands draw circles on his back and he eventually relaxes into the embrace, sobs coming out freely now.

Their warm hand cups his jaw, directing Bruce's gaze up. "I can't... not again."

His voice hitches and hot tears spill from his eyes, blurring his view of the face before him. He shuts his eyes hoping to push the memories away, his essence.

________________

In the void he is just thoughts, thought-matter? He isn't sure, everything is vague and inside the void his thoughts are hard to hold onto. So he isn't thought-matter. More like energy? Gamma-waves, maybe. He makes an approximation of a, 'hmmmm' and shrugs, the blackness ripples, he is bored.

Something ripples back, like a wave hello. He waves back, remembering manners, and ignoring the voice in his head that says there is no one to wave to in the void. A tickle goes up his metaphorical spine, he doesn't like it and it's irritating. He wants to stretch out in the void and find the annoyance, but before he can find it -

Green and black void are fighting for domination and he's angry so so angry and afraid. Banner is fighting him and so so afraid. He pushes him down _sleep puny Banner sleep in the empty void._

He is awake and he roars hello.

_________________

It's been years - no longer than that - he knows because there haven't been forests on Earth for thousands of years. He knows because the human mind isn't made to live past 100 even with mutated genes. Yet, he's lived for millennia and he's just revived again after watching the Earth's sun supernova.

He thinks he went to see it out of some morbid fascination with the death of his home planet. He remembers trying to leave before the dying star's rays became fatal but his small ship's shield fell and then he was dying himself. The Earth and the last human born on her soil dying together. It would have been poetic if he weren't alive.

Bruce raises brown eyes and finally faces Death. They greet each other. He distantly remembers Deadpool, a hero and good man he met only a few times mention that his lover was Death. Deadpool embraced Death long ago with the ease and trust of someone completely at peace with the concept of death.

________________

The empty is fathomless, some sort of space-time dimensional force. The thought is comforting, because at least he is somewhere, right. Banner lets him out only on missions with the Avengers now. It's been too long since he saw them.

Time in the empty has destroyed his memory and speech so he calls them by old nicknames he remembers. A sick feeling rolls over him, as he contemplates that avenue. He ignores it. Soon soon, it'll be his turn.

He nestles into the dark.

________________

Bruce didn't feel the same. At best Bruce's felt Death was a hindrance. He wanted to die of course. It was unnatural for humans to live so long, at least Death said as much. Yet, the Hulk refused to bow to Death's whims and declared the natural order of things, simply put, stupid.

So they went on like this. Bruce died and Hulk told Death to kindly, beat it. If Death could leave them alone to quietly break the laws of the universe then Bruce didn't see a problem.

Death's soft embrace disappeared, at Bruce's refusal. They couldn't reap a shattered soul, something that was one but two at the same time. Death tried once with out Bruce's permission and nearly ripped the universe in half, for their efforts. The universe was still feeling the after-effects of the event.

This was the last chance Bruce had to die. He could accept and effectively kill them both. Or Death would wipe him from existence.

Bruce faced Death, his body laid bare, and challenged Death. Hard brown eyes challenging Death's own fathomless holes. It was terrifying and exhilarating to face, Bruce never met Death face to face. Constantly staring at their nose or neck, refusing to meet the end of everything.

___________________

Banner was gone gone gone. He felt light now like feathers dipped in dark. He grinned sharp and felt his way home, to his true home, in the dark lit by moonlight. It was dreadful dark dreams that brought them to the site that day, he knew. He was there, but now he was going to fix it.

It was like the moon, like the gamma still lingering in the atmosphere leading him home. Like the moon, a circle, push and pulling, in the empty and then into the light. He was the empty and Banner was light. He knew from the beginning, but refused to see it. He made it to the gamma site.

Like circles never ending.

He roared and punched a hole into the empty.

___________________

Bruce dared the being to reap him, to do what needed to be done. Death grinned a sharp white smile. A sandy brown hand reached out for Bruce's jaw, slender almost bony fingers stopped just before touching skin to skin. Bruce could feel the surprising heat coming from Death and he shuddered from the near contact.

"I will not be reaping you today, Bruce Banner." Death spoke, their voice milky and smooth.

Bruce's stomach clenched painfully hot in confusion. This was his last chance. What was happening?

Death's mouth thinned into a line of almost worry-pity. "Don't worry Bruce Banner you'll get your second chance, as they say."

Death straightened up, their hand no longer lingering near Bruce's jawline. Bruce nearly leaned toward Death for the absence of the heat.

"You'll let me reap you eventually."

Death appraised Bruce from their higher angle, but not like they used to. Like Bruce was an annoyance that had to be taken care of. It was almost like Death was doing Bruce a favor not reaping him after all this time. Bruce's stomach clenched hotly in fear for something he couldn't name.

________________________

He wakes in confusion, moss green hands digging in dirt and sand. He howls in pain, a hot pain in his stomach. His head sweeps inhumanly fast unused to his new bulk.

 

 


End file.
